


Dance for Life

by Silvestria



Category: The London Life (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Eleanor likes swing dancing, F/M, Fluff, Tony is a detective, Weddings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-06
Updated: 2016-09-06
Packaged: 2018-08-13 11:37:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7975432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvestria/pseuds/Silvestria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony and Eleanor run, drive and dance together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dance for Life

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to everyone who let me borrow their characters in this, but particularly Liz.

The first time they met was at Race For Life. They had both paused at a water stop, their hands reaching for the same bottle of water. An embarrassed laugh, a quick reach for another bottle on her part and then they found themselves jogging along side each other.  
  
"I'm doing this for my brother," he volunteered after a while, just when she recognised that their steps had somehow fallen into sync.   
  
"My mum," Eleanor replied. She was more out of breath than he was.  
  
"I'm sorry. Is she-"  
  
"She died when I was very little. I've done this every year since I've been old enough. Your brother-"  
  
"Only last year."  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry. That's really hard."  
  
He grunted. They ran on. She wondered why he didn't overtake her. He was clearly faster. But she was glad of a bit of company for a while.  
  
"Not growing up with a mum, I can't imagine it," he said after a while and then suddenly grinned at her. "You can have mine; she's a battle-axe but she does care. And Lizzie, my sister, wouldn't mind someone else to take the heat off her sometimes."  
  
Eleanor met his friendly blue eyes and smiled back.  
  
"Well... See you at the end!" he said a moment later, as if he had just realised that running next to her was an odd thing to be doing. She watched him lope off in front of her with long, powerful strides.   
  
In fact, he did see her at the finish where he held out his hand and said, "Tony."  
  
She clasped the hand, wishing she was slightly less red and sweaty and not clutching at the stitch in her side. "Eleanor."

* * *

The second time they met was on the hard shoulder of the M25 during the evening rush hour.  
  
"Eleanor?" said the plain clothes policeman or detective who got out of the car that drew up behind hers to see what exactly had caused the three mile build up.  
  
"Tony?"  
  
She could have wished it were someone else who had to see the mess she had made after blowing a tyre on the motorway and then not knowing how to change it and having left her AA card at home.  
  
"I didn't realise you worked for the traffic police," she said while she stood feeling useless and watching him change the tyre. His uniformed companion had wandered off to smoke a fag further down the hard shoulder.  
  
"I don't!" he replied with a grin. "I'm a DI. Vic and I have been off to Farnham Common for an interview. We're off duty now but not above taking advantage of police powers to overtake this mess."  
  
"Oh." A detective! That was rather grand. Eleanor crossed her arms over her chest and tried not to look at the smudge of oil on his cheek. "I'm sorry about this." She waved her hand vaguely. "You really didn't have to..."  
  
"Nah, it's fine. Pleasure."  
  
Vic didn't look like he was having fun, she thought, and when DI Tony offered to stay with her as she drove back to London, he jumped in the police car and shot off without another word.  
  
"You really don't have to do this. I'd have been fine," she protested, when the tyre had finally been changed and she was manoevering carefully back into the traffic jam. Tony was squashed into the passenger seat and looking as if he was not altogether sure, now that it came to it, why had done it after all.  
  
In the end it took an hour for the traffic to move and they stopped off at a service station for burgers and chips under cold fluorescent lighting. It was there that Eleanor learned that his sister Lizzie was also Eleanor's friend Elise's cousin Charity's friend Lizzie.  
  
"Small world!" grinned Tony, spearing one of her chips after he had finished his own.  
  
Eleanor wondered if he was coming to Elise's wedding the following month, but didn't like to ask in case it looked like she was suggesting something.

* * *

Tony was indeed at Elise's wedding and when she entered the dining hall with the other bridesmaids and went to look for her table, she was surprised to see that he was put next to her. She had only mentioned him once to Elise, she was sure. She was in fact very certain she had only mentioned him once, and in passing, very casually. Surely it was odd for them to be seated next to each other?  
  
She was also next to Teddy, a friendly young doctor who had been to university with Elise and whom she'd spoken to during drinks.  
  
"So," said Tony, coming up behind her and sitting down, his sister going to take her place on Teddy's other side, "who's up for some speeches sweepstakes? Oh hello, Eleanor."  
  
He grinned at her and she felt warmed by it. It was if smiling was as natural to him as breathing and yet it can't have been an easy year for him. She admired his strength.  
  
"You know each other?" asked Lizzie, her eyes darting between them.  
  
"Eleanor Clare is a terrible driver and a rather splendid runner," he replied with a sweep of his hand and a quick wink at her.  
  
Lizzie groaned. "I hate people who are good at running."  
  
"So, speechstakes?" put in Teddy. "Do we even know who's going to make them?"  
  
The table sat down to work it out with the other two guests, who had now joined them, Clem Worthing, Elise's school friend, and Ira, whose precise connection to the couple was unclear.  
  
"Blake will make one," Lizzie said. "In the role of father of the bride. But it will be very short, knowing him."  
  
"Unless Viola wrote it," said Tony, jerking his head towards the top table and Blake's impeccable looking girlfriend, "in which case it will probably be very long. As long as the number of years they've been together without any sign of a ring."  
  
"Ooh, petty, are you, Tony?" put in Clem rather pertly. "Just because Blake is taking his time, doesn't mean you have to."  
  
Tony laughed it off. "I'm single, Clem, so marriage is a very long way off but thank you for registering your interest. You may start the queue over there."  
  
Clem blushed to the roots of her blonde hair and muttered something about not meaning that at all.  
  
"Robert's speech will be long," said Teddy who was not to be sidetracked. "And does anyone know anything about the best man?"  
  
"Robert's brother, John. Military man," said Ira, speaking for the first time.  
  
"So probably short," said Lizzie and the others nodded.  
  
They made their votes. Teddy wrote them down on a napkin. They ranged from Ira's wishful hope of six minutes twenty nine seconds to Lizzie's over-the-top comedy suggestion of two hours and thirty four minutes seven seconds.  
  
"I'll go by your suggestion," Tony murmured in Eleanor's ear. "Obviously Lizzie is way out. And if she isn't, I suggest we all get up and go half way through. So what do you say?"  
  
"Twenty five minutes," said Eleanor rather primly, for she never knew what to say or what was realistic or particularly liked betting in the first place.  
  
"Alright." Tony held her gaze a moment longer. "Twenty six minutes for me. And let the best man win!"


End file.
